Arizona State Wrestler Bubba Jenkins chats with TOM

By TOM Staff

One of the biggest stories of the off-season was Former Penn State Star Bubba Jenkins landing in Tempe to wrestle for the ASU Sun Devils. Rumors swirled for months as to where he would end up, reasons he was leaving and if he would be ready to make another run. The 2008 NCAA runner-up seems ready and eager to get this season underway.

TOM: What are you most looking forward to this upcoming season?

Bubba: The national finals match, that’s what I’m looking forward to, and that’s what I’m training for. I’m looking forward to getting back on the mat and wrestling how I used to without injury. I’m working as hard as I’ve ever worked, and this is my final season. I’m getting excited just talking about it.

TOM: What are your long term goals in wrestling?

Bubba: Winning a national title, then get on a coaching staff somewhere. I might try to fight MMA and coach at the same time. But after I win a national title I’m done competing as a wrestler.

TOM: What advice would you give to an up and coming wrestler?

Bubba: Get everything out of practice that you can. Some practices you work on your feet, sometimes on bottom, sometimes on top, but what’s important get everything out of practice that you can. I think a lot of kids in high school are too focused on wrestling on their feet, especially if that’s a strength of theirs. If you kind of half ass your mat wrestling and only wrestle hard when you drill on your feet then you wont ever learn it properly. Coming out of high school it was really hard for me to get my mat wrestling up to college level because I’d spent a lot of my high school career focusing on takedowns.

TOM: As a recruit what were the main things you considered when picking a school?

Bubba: I wanted to make sure I was close to home. Family is really a big thing to me, I wanted them to be able to come see me compete. Academics was another big thing, if I broke my leg in the first match and couldn’t ever wrestle again, I wanted to make sure I was set with a good degree. As for the wrestling program itself, I didn’t really care if the coach was that great, or if the wrestling room had flat screen TVs. What was important to me was that the program was behind the athletes.

TOM: What is the biggest personal or wrestling-related obstacle you have had to overcome?

Bubba: Being injured in college. I was never injured in high school, not once. Once I got up to college I got hurt for the first time my freshman year. It got better and I was able to have a good season, but it was definitely a new experience for me. My junior year I struggled a lot with injuries, and it showed in my performance. I was beating guys 3-2 and 2-1 that I would have majored the year before.

TOM: Is there anyone in particular you are looking forward to wrestling this year?

Bubba: Adam Hall, he’s been around my weight all my life. I have a mini-grudge towards him. I pinned my way through senior nationals and felt like I should get OW, but Hall got OW instead. Or maybe Reader got it because he beat Hall, it was something like that. Either way that guy cost me an OW. I’m really looking forward to wrestling him as part of a team for the Pac 10 title this year.

TOM: To date what is your most memorable match and why?

Bubba: My most memorable match was against Darrion Caldwell in the NCAA semifinals my sophomore year. It was being televised on ESPN and I knew all my family and friends from back home were watching me. Back when I was in high school we used to all get together to watch the NCAA matches together, so I knew that many of my friends from back home were watching it. To have such an epic, crazy match on national television in front of friends and family was the best. And that was the match that put me into the national finals too. Thank you Darrion!

TOM: It’s possible you might meet up with former teammate David Taylor at some point this year, what are your thoughts on that match-up?

Bubba: I love David, he’s a great guy, he’s a stud. He’s going to be a really good competitor. He happens to be Cael’s Golden Boy, and as much as I didn’t really get along with Cael, I know David adores him. Seeing him across the mat wouldn’t be bad, but it would be interesting. It would be a little awkward I guess. We’d get through it though, we’d wrestle 100%. Afterward he and I would talk about how’s Penn State, how’s Arizona; but directly before and during a match I’m not friends with anybody, and I know he is the same way.

TOM: Arizona State well present you with a new set of work out partners. What if any impact do you think that will have on your training this year?

Bubba: This was one of the things I thought about as a true freshman being recruited. It never really mattered to me who I was working out with. Its great to have good workout partners, but when you’re competing, its just you out there on the wrestling mat. Also I want to dispel the myth that ASU doesn’t have great workout partners. We have Robles who can teach a lot of different mat techniques, we have Stith who was an NCAA runner up and is right around my weight, we have Coach Charles who was a two time NCAA runner up, and so on. These guys are all phenomenal and a lot of guys in schools like PSU would love to have them in their room or in their corner. And again, I don’t care if its Mickey Mouse or Hulk Hogan that you work out with– if you go out there and forget to take care of business, your workout partners become irrelevant. It’s on you to push yourself and make yourself better.

TOM: What are you walking around at right now weight wise? Will you be ready to step on the wrestling mat this fall or are there any injury or eligibility issues that might delay your return?

Bubba: I’m feeling 100%, no injuries, no academic problems, I’m good to go. Right now I’m walking around at about 163. It’s a lot easier for me to stay in shape here, Penn State was too cold. Down here I’m always outside doing stuff.

TOM: What was it like working with Cael? I know you two didn’t exactly see eye-to-eye.

Bubba: I was a wrestler on the Penn State team, and he became the coach of the team. That was the extent of our relationship. I remember once during the season I had swine flu for two weeks, I told them I wasn’t feeling well, but they didn’t believe me. My mom had to drive up from Virginia 6.5 hours away to take me to the hospital, that’s where we found out it was swine flu. Cael was the coach of the team and I only got one text message from him during that time. That’s nothing new in terms of the way he treated me, but it is one thing that really stuck out to me during that year. I was in the wrestling room for two months, and he barely even talked to me and the same with a lot of his coaching staff.

I could sense there was something going on. I didn’t feel like he wanted me there, didn’t feel like the loyalty I’d given to the fans and to the program was being repaid by him. Once he came in I figured he just wanted to free up the money and get on his way. Maybe for some people he’ll be a great coach, for guys like David Taylor and Quentin who he really has a thing for. But he’s not someone I would ever send my kids to, and I really got the feeling like he cared about the program a lot more than he cared about the kids in it, if that makes any sense.

TOM: Is there anything positive you can take away from your most recent year at PSU?

Bubba: Yea, it really humbled me. It made me feel expendable. Not because I was getting too big for my britches– it was more that no matter how hard you work and how much you do, there will always be people who ought to be rooting for you that are going to root against you. That was a big revelation for me. I’m really self-motivated and the last year at PSU helped reinforce that for me. It taught me to focus on what I can do for myself rather then what other people can do for me. I think it was really good for me to have that year off too, even if the way I went about getting it was not the way I wanted to. I was struggling with injuries and pretty burned out, but now my body is healed and I feel refreshed. I’m around coaches and people who are ecstatic about me being here, and I really feel like I’m ready to turn the corner and win a national title. I’m excited to help this team get to the next level and bring all of the experience I’ve gotten competing in the Big 10 to ASU.